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Should You Tan Before or After a Workout?

Being fit and having a nice bronze tan indeed go hand in hand, regardless of the season and the time of the year. However, maintaining a quality tan, while keeping your body fit and trim, can often feel like mission impossible. It is kind of a have your cake and eat it, too scenario. Especially if we are talking about spray on tan, and we at Artesian Tan usually are.

When it comes to a sunless type of tans, people are often wondering: should I get a tan before or after workout sessions? And for a good reason.

Can you workout after a spray tan?

You shouldn’t work out after your tanning session.

Spray-on tan is extremely vulnerable right after your tanning session. It usually takes between 4 and 8 hours for a fresh tan to develop properly, and during this period it is quite susceptible to sweat and moisture.

If, however, you choose to work out and sweat anyway, your tan will most likely turn out to be an uneven, streaky and patchy mess.

What you SHOULD do before your first workout after spray tanning?

1. Rinse before you hit the gym

When the time finally comes for you to go to the gym with your brand new tan, make sure you rinse your tanned skin before you start your workout session. To do this correctly you need to do it in a form of a light, lukewarm shower that won’t last more than 50 seconds. This rinsing process will make sure your spray tan develops evenly, and will also remove any excess tan and dead skin.

2. Moisturize before your workout session

Be sure not to moisturize or use any lotions during the aforementioned period (4 to 8 hours) after your sunless tanning session. However, when the time comes and you’ve had your first shower, it is advisable to continue moisturizing as frequently as always.

Moisturizing right before your exercise will prevent your new tan to streak and fade quickly.

3. Baby powder helps with sweating

Applying baby powder to your skin can help you a great deal when it comes to absorbing sweat. Aside from preventing rashes that are usually caused by excessive sweating during workouts, baby powder can also aid in preventing spray tan from coming off. The areas that you should apply the baby powder include:

your armpits

ankles

the back of your knees

other skin areas where you sweat excessively

4. Change clothes right after your workout session

This probably goes without saying, but always make sure to bring an additional set of clothing items so you can completely change and take off those sweat-soaked clothes as soon as you are done with your training.

Wearing sweaty clothes, especially if you wear tight t-shirts, can cause your tan to fade, streak and discolor really fast, which is why it is crucial that you have dry clothes ready and shower right after your training.

Maintaining your spray tan properly isn’t exactly rocket science, but there are some rules that you should take into account and abide by, especially during those critical 4 to 8 hours after your spray-on tanning session.

We hope Artesian Tan managed to provide you with a useful and actionable answer on whether you should spray tan before or after a workout. For more articles like this one, visit Artesian Tan!